Susan, I am planting an Early Goliath which is supposed to be 58 days. I'm not sure what else yet.

Burpee's 4th of July for me. Produces golf ball sized early and continuously until frost.

Keith

I don't plant a lot of early types because they just aren't that much earlier than mid-season types and lots of the really early types aren't as flavorful as the midseason ones. Sometimes, my mid-season types produce ripe fruit just as early as, or earlier than, the early season types and it drives me nuts when that happens. Early Girl, for example, is notorious in my garden for "not" being early and for consistently being later than several midseason types.

I usually have two types of early tomatoes, but this year I'll have three.

The first type of earlies are varieties with a DTM of 65 days or less. In that category I have several tomatoes chosen for their flavor/earliness and a few other small-fruited types chosen just because we like them or because they grow well in containers but which weren't specifically chosen for their early DTM. In this category, I'll be growing:

Early Goliath
Cluster Goliath
Mosvich
Marmande
New Big Dwarf
Goliath (which straddles the dividing line between early and mid-season types)
Azoychka
Black Cherry
SunGold

and in the container part of this group:

Red Robin
Yellow Canary
Orange Pixie
Sweet 'N Neat Scarlet
Sweet 'N Neat Yellow

Some of the newer container types I'm trying may or may not be early...you never know with a new variety....and I'm referring to Rambling Red Stripe, Pear Drops, Tumbling Tiger and Tumbling Tom Jr. Yellow.

The second category is a group that gives me early tomatoes even though the varieties themselves are not necessarily "early" if you go by the DTMs. These are the handful of plants I purchase in 6" peat pots in mid-February and put into containers. The selection varies a bit from year to year depending on what Lowe's has in the stores in Dallas early, but usually it is something like Better Bush, Better Boy, Goliath and Big Beef. If I put these in containers in mid-Feb., most of them will give me ripe fruit by latest April or earliest May, assuming I remember to move them back into the garage every single night. (You only have to forget to move them inside one time in late winter/early spring and they're dead.)

Third and new this year (in terms of producing "early" tomatoes), are the couple of plants from 2010 I still have in containers in the garage at night and outside during the day when temps are above freezing. I have one Husky Red Cherry and one Tumbling Tom Red. From the Husky Red Cherry, I harvest a handful of tomatoes every week but the Tumbling Tom Red is struggling a big more, indicating it cannot handle the cool nights in the unheated garage as well as Husky Red Cherry does. So, these tomatoes could be considered either really early producers for 2011 or really late ones from 2010.

I have grown Fourth of July several times specifically for its earliness, and it might make it back on the grow list when I sow seeds. If I transplant Fourth of July into the ground in late March or early April, it will give me ripe tomatoes by Memorial Day weekend. Last year the FFs at DS's fire station were craving early tomatoes, and I didn't really have any to send them in May because we devour every early one we get. I might grow Fourth of July, which is a fiercely heavy producer, just so I'll have some for DS to take to work in May and early June.

If I didn't start my own from seed and only used purchased plants, I'd likely rely on Early Girl and Jetstar for early tomatoes, and of the those, Jetstar always produces earlier in my garden than Early Girl does. However, Early Girl produces heavily all summer long and into fall so she's a worthwhile tomato even if she is not, for whatever reason, early for us.

Most of the tomatoes I grow are mid-season types and very few are late-season types.

Dawn

I think I made a serious mistake in ordering tomato seeds this year. I think I've ended up with mostly late producers. I have a few mids, and had fewer earlies. I went ahead and ordered some more early varieties to fill in the gap, but am going to have to get that grow chart done so I know where I am.

So far I can count:

Hahms Gelbe Tofptomate
Mountain Princess
Sophie's Choice
New Big Dwarf
Earlibell
Oregon Spring
Siletz
Polish Dwarf
Sungold
Black Cherry
Boloto
Early Rouge
Manyel
Rosa Vetrov
Santiam

Mid-Season

Indian Stripe (? some say late season)
Paragon Livingston
Porter
Hawaiian Currant
Black Sea Man
Riviera
Purple Hillbilly

Now that I'm looking at it in print, it seems I'm heavier on the earlies than I thought, and low on the mid-season tomatos. I will try to hold back on planting all of the late season varieties I've acquired and only plant a couple in hopes that some of the earlies and mid-season plants will produce in the fall.

Thanks for the input everyone.

Susan

I think Bloody Butcher and Black Cherry are my only early tomatoes right now. I planned on planting Sun Gold too, but I hate to buy anything else before the swap.

Azoychka is on my probably list. Of course, there will be a few cherries which are usually early. I'm also considering Bloody Butcher. Does anyone have any input on Bloody Butcher? I've not grown that one yet but it's supposed to be very early, according to the notes I made when I read up on it.

Diane

Diane, Bloody Butcher is pretty early, but I'm not sure it is quite as early as they say. I think its DTM is 55, but in my garden it is more of a 60-62 DTM, depending (of course) on what the weather is doing. It is very dependable, though, and produces heavily and has great flavor for such an early tomatoe.

One problem I have with a lot of the early tomatoes (but not with Bloody Butcher) is that their flavor is lacking. Sometimes that is more the fault of the variety and sometimes it is just because tomatoes that ripen in less intense heat and sunlight have less intense flavor, or too much spring rain waters down the taste.

Dawn

Dawn, I agree on the flavor thing on the earlies, and is one of the reasons I wanted to try the Goliath Collection and see if some of the early ones were a little better in taste.

I didn't list the cherry tomatoes I will have because if everything sets fruit at the same time, the cherries will be early just because of their size.

lat0403 - Sungold is a hybrid and not AS likely to be in the swap as the open pollinated ones, but you might get lucky and someone will decide to share their pack with you. In the next few days we can start placing a wish list out on the Swap thread and I will try to fill as many of the request as I can. Maybe someone will see your wish list and just put your name on a pack.

Susan, I would sure like to find an early that was both good tasting and early because I crave that first ripe tomato in spring. Even when you do your best to plant the early ones, it depends on a lot of other things. In spite of all I can do (short of a greenhouse), I usually get my first tomatoes around July 1st. I could be a couple of days earlier or later, but that is the norm for me. One year I put a few in WOW and got some earlier ones the same week that most people were putting their tomatoes in the ground, but it was a lot of trouble and I still had to cover them some nights. Of course, I am very far north and only about 40 miles from Joplin MO, and probably 30 miles south of the Kansas state line.

While Dawn is enjoying her first tomatoes, I am checking mine everyday and thinking they will never come. However, Jay is not much further north (but almost across the state) than I am and has a totally different climate than I do, and while he is just beginning to get his first tomatoes for the table, I am picking tomatoes and making salsa about every other day.

So what is an early tomato....and where....and is it worth all the trouble. Someday I will have a greenhouse and can have some early ones without working myself to death for them. I heard my DH mention that to the building contractor the other day, so maybe it isn't too far off.

One year Dawn gave me a cantaloupe plant that she had planted the same time as she planted hers. I planted it in a black container and put it in a sunny spot and drooled everday while she talked about eating melons. Finally mine produced, about a month later, and made 6 or 8 nice melons. So I guess my point is...all things are just not equal, or even fair. LOL

This is going to be a new venture for me, trying to get some early tomatos, and I've read on many other forums and websites the same thing you guys are saying, that they don't have much flavor at first but develop better flavor as they continue growing and as it gets warmer (before it gets too warm here). I doubt I will plant all of them anyway. Will just have to see how much $ I have to spend on potting implements like mix, pots, fertilizers, etc. This is not a money saving endeavor, is it? I can kind of understand why farmers, both commercial and smaller growers, have to charge so much for a good tomato. It really gives you an in-depth birds-eye view of what goes into growing just one tomato plant from seed to those final, fall fruits. Of course, I can't do anything half way, so the initial output is greater than the input right now, but boy, is it worth it!

I tried to pick varieties that were either determinate, dwarf, tree type, or semi-det/semi-indet, but a lot are also indeterminates that I have got to get some gro bags to put them in.

We shall see what happens.......

Susan

Thanks, Dawn. I'll add it to my grow list for this year. I've never bothered with earlies very often just for the lack of taste but now, with the shorter season, I'm determined to give them more of a try.

Diane

Oh, I didn't think anyone would put Sungold in the swap. I just figured I would get something in the swap that I was just as happy with. I've never tried Sungold, so I can't miss what I've never had. I may end up buying it anyway, but if I looked right now, I'd end up with a lot more than Sungold!

Everyone has to plant Sungold and Black Cherry. It's the law.

Sungold is a great little tomato. I normally don't like a tomato that has a sweet taste, but to me Sungold is like eating a piece of fruit. They are wonderful.

I haven't looked at my seed box yet so I am not sure what I will be planting, but I know that Black Cherry and Sungold will be on the list. I have a neighbor that had a very poor garden last year and I had tons of tomatoes so I have been thinking about planting cherry tomatoes on the fence that we share so they could pick what they want.

Carol, that's so nice of you to plant tomatos for the neighbor, too!

I have read that Sungold is one of those tomatos that has better, more fruity, flavor if left on the vine to ripen. Not that they are "bad" when picked early to ripen inside, just that they are at their best flavor harvested when ripe. Would you guys agree with that?

Susan

of the 400 varieties I planted in 2009, Bloody Butcher was my first to ripen by several days along with "Moravsky Div", which I couldn't tell apart.

Susan,

It is true of all tomatoes. If you pick them and eat them a few days too early, the full flavor doesn't develop. A lot of people pick Early Girl a few days too early and find the flavor less than impressive, but if they wait a few more days, the flavor is better.

I pick tomatoes less by visible color than by touch. A fully ripened tomato that has great flavor is softer than a not-quite-perfectly-ripe tomato that might taste good, or merely OK if picked as soon as its color "looks" ripe, but which would improve if left on the vine a couple more days.

Often, when folks begin experimenting with non-red tomatoes, they pick the pinks, blacks, purples, yellows, oranges, etc. too early because they don't know from experience how much deeper/darker the color will be at maximum ripeness for full flavor.

For black and bicolored tomatoes that often have green to greenish shoulders, sometimes people pick them too late because they're waiting for the green to go away. When someone tries a tomato like Black Krim for the first time and says it was mushy and didn't taste good, that's often a clue that let it get overly ripe on the vine. In many cases those green to greenish shoulders on some black or bicolor tomatoes are normal and the tomatoes get too ripe while the gardener is waiting for the green shoulders to color up.

Green-when-ripe types give gardeners fits too when they first start growing them. Some green when ripes stay pretty green, but others turn a yellowish-amber color with some green remaining. So, when growing their first GWR types, a lot of people pick them too early.

As with everything else in the garden, it just takes learning the right degree of color and softness for a given variety to know when to pick.

When the first tomato is "almost ripe", it is the hardest thing in the world to leave it alone and let it get a bit riper, but the flavor will be vastly improved with a couple more days on the plant.

Dawn